Ford Fans Claim ‘Very Gay Raptor’ Made Them Buy a Toyota

Ford Europe created the ‘Very Gay Raptor’ to troll an online commenter. And now Ford fans in America are allegedly buying other brands.

Never read the comments, they say. But that’s just what Ford Europe did back in 2021. At the time, Ford was launching the Euro variant of the Ranger Raptor (a truck the U.S. didn’t get until the new generation debuted this year). But when one online commentator called the Ranger Raptor’s blue color, “very gay,” Ford decided to troll said commenter with a photoshopped Ranger Raptor featuring a flowing rainbow and glittery gold livery. They called it the “Very Gay Raptor” in celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

Ford Germany followed up in August 2021 by turning the Photoshop experiment into a reality — dubbed the “Rainbow Raptor” — and photographed it next to a 1998 Ka pickup conversion also donning a rainbow livery.

The resulting cultural blowback was, at the time, minimal. So Ford Europe returned in 2022 with a second “Very Gay Raptor” (below) — this one based on the all-new, next-generation Ranger pickup. The rainbow and gold Ranger Raptor made its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK as a way to demonstrate Ford’s support of the LGBTQ+ community as well as conjure up discussions aimed at driving discrimination out of the automotive industry as a whole, according to the automaker. The Blue Oval even held panel discussions centered around these topics at Goodwood, all with the intention of making the industry more inclusive.

This too went unnoticed in the grand scheme of things until almost a year later…

When Anheuser-Busch launched a marketing campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on a Bud Light beer can. The original idea was to promote a new “Easy Carry Contest” seeking a fan who could carry the most beer cans and get a chance at winning $15,000 for doing so. But, when Mulvaney proceeded to show off their Bud Light can on social media, it triggered a massive cultural backlash that prompted a boycott of Bud Light and other Anheuser-Busch products.

During the cultural firestorm over the world’s worst beer, Ford fans were angered to find Ford Europe’s year-old “Very Gay Raptor” launch video (below) and press photos. And many of the same people who gave up Bud Light – resulting in some seriously sharp sales decreases for its parent brand – vowed to never buy a Ford product again, with countless videos and articles devoted to the subject drawing heavy attention online.

The fans, it seems, said the truck and its commercial sealed the deal on their decision to buy Toyotas, RAMs, and Chevys.

It’s somewhat unclear what caused the “Very Gay Raptor” to resurface as a veritable call to arms nearly a year after its debut, but a Twitter post from the account “I Meme Therefore I Am” in mid-May 2023 racked up 14 million views in a short period of time, while a similar (since deleted) post on TikTok accumulated 2.7 million views after it was posted the next day.

Regardless, the story was then picked up by a host of news outlets, quickly gaining steam on social media at the same time. Whether or not a sizable number of people will ultimately boycott Ford over this one-off build remains to be seen, but this is yet another prime example of how marketing – even with the best intentions – can go very well for a company, or very, very badly.

Photos: Ford

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Brett Foote

Brett Foote has been covering the automotive industry for over five years and is a longtime contributor to Internet Brands’ Auto Group sites, including Chevrolet Forum, Rennlist, and Ford Truck Enthusiasts, among other popular sites.

He has been an automotive enthusiast since the day he came into this world and rode home from the hospital in a first-gen Mustang, and he's been wrenching on them nearly as long.

In addition to his expertise writing about cars, trucks, motorcycles, and every other type of automobile, Brett had spent several years running parts for local auto dealerships.

You can follow along with his builds and various automotive shenanigans on Instagram: @bfoote.